KOTESOL SEOUL 2015

My first presentation shouldn't be that difficult, after all, I have been making presentations everyday for my students.  Just that in this case, my students would be my peers.  Teaching English idioms and expressions through television was the topic I had to present, a topic I have been using and studying about since 2004.  Fast forward to the 2015 KOTESOL International Conference and I was ready to give my 80 minute workshop presentation.  To my delight, the room was packed full of eager learners.  I was glad to see some Korean faces in the audience, knowing full well that they were curious and willing to help their students with this nontraditional method of learning. My presentation went off without a hitch.  Many people left partway through my presentation to go to a different speaker.  When I was done speaking, the remaining faithful were first broken up into groups to act out a lesson as an ESL student.  I believed, through personal experience at these kinds of professional development workshops, that we, as educators, need to put ourselves in the shoes of our students to see that, even as English educators, it can be challenging to speak up in a small group, or to act out in a role play.  The students, in the teacher centred parts of the lesson, were stellar.  During the small group work, which focuses on collective, as well as collaborative learning, the students were really keen, especially in groups where they had to explain cultural differences and sharing between the East and West. After the discussion questions were done, the teachers/students then used their very own methods of how they teach English through movies and television.  As with any workshop, I learned a lot, as well, by causally listening in on the discussion.  Then at the end of the workshop, the students performed role plays, to the delight of each and every audience member.  They were every bit as entertaining as I had expected, and even more, as we did not have as much of a language barrier as an ESL student.  After the workshop, I was approached by a Korean lady who was conducting research on why people from Seoul learn English better than people from other parts of Korea.  I told her that it was due to Seoul's citizens having more access to English speakers, as well as having a more open-minded attitude.